In a startling revelation this week, Diego Costa and Atletico Madrid turned down Liverpool two summers ago after a conversation with Jose Mourinho. Costa then joined Chelsea one year later!

A new biography has been written about Diego Costa by Fran Gillen called ‘Diego Costa: The Art of War’ and reveals exactly what happened.

The book claims that Liverpool had submitted a £21.8m bid for Costa in the summer of 2013 which would have triggered the release clause in his contract at that time. This was the same time Jose Mourinho had made his return to Stamford Bridge and he had identified Costa as his number one transfer target.

It's claimed that Jose Mourinho had already submitted his transfer plans for rebuilding the Chelsea team for another decade of dominance which had included a move for Costa but Roman Abramovich was unsure.

After hearing about the Liverpool bid to release Costa from his contract, Jose Mourinho made contact with Atletico and Costa to convince them to reject a move to Anfield.

The book states:

“Jose Mourinho, recently returned to Chelsea, had also identified Costa as a primary target, a Didier Drogba-style centre-forward around whom he could forge a new winning machine.However, Mourinho had yet to persuade the owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, to accelerate his rebuilding plans. In both acquiring new players and moving others on, the process would be gradual.If Costa could not be signed [for Chelsea] now, a strategy was needed to ensure he was delayed, and not diverted.Chelsea and Mourinho made their case to Costa and Atletico: turn down Liverpool now and we will sign you – for more money – in 12 months.”

Fantastic from the manager and after the season Costa has had here, it proved to be well worth the wait for Atletico and Chelsea! Atletico received £10m more while Chelsea signed a striker that everyone would want playing for them.